I didn't find any mention of mSATA SATA 6Gb/s capabilities. All I found was that it supports SATA 1.5 and 3.0 Gb/s. Does this article and the specs of the Intel drive mean that mSATA _does_ support SATA 6Gb/s? :)Reply

You don't say.The problem is, that even the official press release for mSATA from SATA IO only states up to 3.0 speeds and I could not find anything official that says otherwise, except from mSATA manufacturers.I guess they are just being lazy then and 6.0 is supported without issue. :)Reply

ADATA hasn't released 5.0.4+ yet. We're still stuck on 5.0.2a months after the new firmware was released. I'll pay Intel for their great support and quicker-than-molasses firmware validation. So, yes, I'll see a difference once I have working TRIM.Reply

The more mSATA, the merrier. Not many choices out there for consumer mSATA so having another version from Intel will be good for everyone. Especially since they are covering all sizes except for the extra large 480/512GB.

One question about the M.2 form factor

Does the PCIe interface compatibility mean I can convert via cable to PCIe x1 slot?Reply

Guess this will be nice for OEM. I'll be building an HTPC very soon and have been looking for a Mini ITX board that will support a 6GB mSATA. But all the ones I've seen so far only support 3GB mSATA.Reply

Good to see you guys (Anand and Kristian) covering the toolbox software in more detail lately. Thanks!

I recently tried the Samsung Magician toolbox software with WinXP and found it to be buggy and irritating to work with (doesn't recognize 840 Pro, insists on running at Windows startup, etc.). I've got a new Win7 machine, so I'll give it a try with that machine.

The screenshots of the Intel software appear to show that their toolbox has some polish to it. I look forward to trying it.

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MUSIC & MOVIES

I'm currently running SSDs for system drives (OS + progs + a small amount of mostly compressible data) on all of my machines. The SSDs are OWC, Intel, and Samsung.

It looks like larger and larger SSDs for bulk data are on the cusp of being affordable. So I am itching to buy some bigger capacity SSDs to dedicate to bulk storage.

So I also particularly appreciate the reminder that Sandforce drives perform very poorly when they get filled up with compressed data like movies and music.

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WARRANTY

Good to see Intel giving a proper 5 year warranty.

Unfortunately, it looks like the high capacity drives from some of the competition are stuck with paltry 3-year warranties.

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LAST THOUGHTS

So it looks like good toolbox software, a decent warranty, and high capacity (~960GB), in a high performance SSD aren't quite here yet.

But, for system drives in mSATA slots, these Intel 525 SSDs look to be unbeatable.

Thanks for great SSD articles! I look forward to reading the updates on spare area.